


winter grass

by actuallyfeanor



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Canon Compliant, Depression, Gen, Narrative foils, Nazgûl | Ringwraiths, Pelennor Fields, Poetry, does it count as suicidal thoughts if you're already a ghost?, witch-king POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26795125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actuallyfeanor/pseuds/actuallyfeanor
Summary: somewhere along the way, "no man can kill you" turned from a blessing into a curse, and the price of power and immortality is eternal, bone-chilling winter
Relationships: Éowyn & Witch-king of Angmar
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	winter grass

**Author's Note:**

> Optional homework: Read "The Hollow Men" by TS Eliot and listen to "This Too Shall Pass" by Danny Schmidt after you're done with the poem for maximum emotional impact

in this shadow realm, this life that is not life  
he is a king and armies tremble before him  
he is death, inevitable  
there was a life before the shadow, but only fragments remain  
it was never enough  
he always wanted more, wanted glory, wanted everything  
he wished to cheat death, so he became death  
(be careful what you wish for)  
a stranger came to him, a messenger from the gods  
saying, _you can live forever_  
saying, _mortality is as fleeting as the winter snows  
here one day, gone the next  
cast it off like a worn cloak_  
what did he know of winter?  
what did he know of the bone-deep cold of the north?  
the cold is his constant companion now  
that he has cast away warm flesh, warm blood  
a prophet came to him, a wise man with stars for eyes  
saying, _you will never die by the hands of men  
for it is not the blood of the living that runs in your veins_  
the ring on his finger is a dark star  
its gravity tethering him here in the borderlands  
(there was a price, there is always a price)  
a soldier comes to him, eager for death  
he laughs in the face of his opponent  
the words of the prophet echoing in the shadow realm  
but the soldier is unmasked  
and a woman stands before him  
grey-eyed, stern-eyed, mirror-eyed  
for they are alike, once hungry for glory  
now laughing in the face of certain death  
and the king thinks, _it would be an honour  
to have it end here, in a field of winter grass  
to meet death together with one who longs for it  
with the same desperate fervour as I do_


End file.
